Hind-class sloop explained

The Hind class was a class of four sloops of wooden construction built for the Royal Navy between 1743 and 1746. Two were built by contract with commercial builders to a common design prepared by Joseph Allin, then Master Shipwright at Deptford Dockyard (and from 1745 joint holder of the post of Surveyor of the Navy), and the other two were built in Deptford Dockyard under the supervision of Allin himself.

The first two - Hind and Vulture - were ordered on 6 August 1743 to be built to replace two ex-Spanish vessels (the Rupert's Prize and Pembroke's Prize, captured in 1741 and 1742 respectively, and put into service by the British); they were officially awarded their names on 18 April 1744. Although initially armed with ten 6-pounder guns, this class was built with seven pairs of gunports on the upper deck, enabling them to be re-armed with fourteen 6-pounders later in their careers.

Two more vessels to the same design - Jamaica and Trial - were ordered ten days later, on 18 August 1743 and were named on 13 July 1744; these were built under Allin's supervision at Deptford Dockyard, and were the only wartime sloops of this era to be built in a Royal Dockyard. In early 1754 the Trial was fitted with a mizzen mast at Deptford, thus making her a ship-sloop.

Vessels

Name	Ordered	Builder	Laid down	Launched	Completed	Fate
Hind	6 August 1743	Philemon Perry, Blackwall	11 September 1743	19 April 1744	12 May 1744	Lost 1 September 1747 off Louisbourg.
Vulture (written as Vulter)	6 August 1743	John Greaves, Limehouse	16 September 1743	4 May 1744	24 May 1744	Sold 30 January 1761 at Portsmouth.
Jamaica	18 August 1743	Deptford Dockyard	15 September 1743	17 July 1744	28 August 1744	Wrecked 27 January 1770 off Cuba.
Trial	18 August 1743	Deptford Dockyard	15 September 1743	17 July 1744	9 August 1744	Taken to pieces, completed 3 January 1776 at Woolwich.

Costs

Hind was built for £1,996.12.0d (a contract rate of £7.10.0d per ton) and then fitted out (at Woolwich Dyd) for a further £2,015.4.4d.
Vulture was also built for £1,996.12.0d (the same contract rate of £7.10.0d per ton) and then fitted out at Deptford Dyd for a further £1,864.10.9d.
Jamaica was built and fitted for £5,065.7.4d.Trial was built and fitted for £5,050.13.1d.

See also

List of corvette and sloop classes of the Royal Navy
s (1740)
s (1741)
s (1742)
s - the other 'standard' sloop design of the 1743–1746 era.

References

• • McLaughlan, Ian. The Sloop of War 1650-1763. Seaforth Publishing, 2014. .
• Winfield, Rif. British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714-1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing, 2007. .